


Day 18: Misfit

by Magpie_Crow



Series: Inktober 2019 [18]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Happy Ending, Lamp - Freeform, M/M, Misunderstandings, Movie References, Mutual Pining, angry Virgil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-23 17:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21085478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magpie_Crow/pseuds/Magpie_Crow
Summary: Roman continued to pace and elaborate on his distress. Deceit made eye contact with Remus, whose head was in his lap. They had to do something, if only to distract Roman from his self-deprecation.





	Day 18: Misfit

**Author's Note:**

> This is fluffy and sweet to make up for yesterday. I'm not sorry, as such is a writer's life, but you get the idea.

He had only gone downstairs to see if he could get one of the cookies Patton was baking. Instead, he was met with the sight of Patton and Virgil kissing sweetly in the kitchen, Logan looking on with something soft in his eyes. 

Roman spun on his heel and sunk out. He knew better than to interrupt.

~~

“I just. I don’t feel like I fit in!” Roman’s gesticulations nearly knocked a small bundle of herbs off the ceiling of the small cottage. “They’re all so… Calm, and they love so quietly. I’m the only misfit, being so brash. Maybe that’s why they don’t- can’t love me.” He paused his pacing back and forth. “Because I love too loud.”

“I’m absolutely _sure_ that is the case, Roman.” Deceit took a sip of his tea. “The others _have_ spoken to you about it. It’s _so_ polite to make assumptions about their feelings.”

Roman continued to pace and elaborate on his distress. Deceit made eye contact with Remus, whose head was in his lap. They had to do something, if only to distract Roman from his self-deprecation.

Remus nodded and hopped up, almost making Deceit spill his tea. “Ro! I made something! I want to show you!”

The prince let himself be led out of the cottage and into the wilds of the Imagination. It wasn’t unusual for Remus to show him an odd construct of his, just as it was customary for the three to meet up once a week for tea. It was often a comfort, watching the way his brother and Deceit interacted, knowing that at least half of Creativity was worthy of being loved.

“Is that a…”

“Full scale model of Halloween from Nightmare Before Christmas? Yes.” 

Roman turned away from the awe-inspiring scene to look at his brother. “You made this?”

Nodding, Remus made a gesture towards the town. “Want to play Sally to my Doc Finklestein?”

“Who would play Jack?”

“Dee, of course.” The duke’s grin was infectious. 

“I’m not kissing him.”

“I’m _totally_ kissing Roman.” 

Deceit and Roman glared at each other when they realized they had spoken at the same time. Remus started laughing.

“No, I don’t want you two kissing anyways, else I’d have to kill Roman. Platonic Jack and Sally! I also call the role of Oogie Boogie.”

~~ 

Virgil looked up as Roman wandered through the living room. Logan and Patton were curled up on either side of him, and they looked up as well. 

Roman was singing under his breath. “Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!”

“Heya, Princey.” Roman’s tiny shriek didn’t make Virgil smirk. At all. “You’ve been gone all day.”

“Yeah, Ro! We had spaghetti for dinner and you didn’t show up!”

Roman smiled winningly at them. “Never fret, my dear compatriots! I had dinner in the Imagination with Fibber on the Roof.” 

“Then may we ask what had you occupied the entirety of the day before dinner? As far as I am aware, you were not working or resting in your own rooms for the majority of the day.”

Virgil watched in something akin to horror as a very nice smile spread across Roman’s face. Why, oh why did he have to be in love with such a moron? 

“We were re-enacting Nightmare Before Christmas, of course! Deceit makes a marvelous Jack.” Roman practically waltzed into the kitchen, where the three could hear him humming Sally’s Song. 

The anxious side turned to whisper at his boyfriends. “If Deceit played Jack, that means Roman was Sally! What do you think that means?”

Both Patton and Logan shook their heads. It seemed that something was afoot.

Roman danced back into the living room, an apple in his hand. “We’re doing Little Shop of Horrors tomorrow. I’m glad Deceit likes singing Seymor’s parts! I finally get my chance to act as Audrey onstage. Her death scene is emotionally driven, and quite lovely.”

The three on the couch watched in silence as he made his way upstairs to his room. As soon as they heard his door shut, they converged.

“What could Deceit possibly be conspiring? He has never shown an interest in acting with Roman before.”

“Now, Logan, maybe they’re just becoming better friends! Acting is just another kind of lie, isn’t it?”

“I don’t like it. Something is going on and I don’t like it.”

~

Roman, up in his room, realized he had neglected to mention his brother. Well, they _had_ been in the Imagination, surely the other three could put two and two together?  
Remus was _so_ excited about playing Audrey II.

~~

It was a few more days of Roman completely vanishing into the Imagination for hours at a time before Virgil finally had enough. Every time they saw the prince, he mentioned playing Deceit’s love interest in whatever theater production or movie they enacted. When Patton asked “just you guys?” Roman had laughed and responded “oh, you know the Imagination! Constructs, and such. They fill the gaps in the cast so easily.”

The three were sitting around the dining table, looking over notes that Logan had been taking about the odd occurrences. There was a note at the top of one page that said ‘alone in the Imagination. Investigate?’

Virgil slammed his hands down on the table. “I’m going to go find Deceit. We have to figure out what’s going on.” He sunk out, leaving the other two to stare at the place where he’d been. 

They were startled when he returned immediately, clutching not one, but two other sides by their ears. Both Remus and Deceit looked suspiciously mussed, and even more so when Virgil unceremoniously dropped them on the floor. 

“_What_. Are. You. Doing. With. Roman?” His voice was a growl, dark and dangerous. 

Deceit looked at Remus, who shrugged. “Definitely _not_ Hunchback of Notre Dam. He _didn’t_ express _any_ interest in playing Esmerelda.” 

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” 

Patton stood up, coming over to rest his hands on Virgil’s shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. 

Four heads snapped up as a door overhead slammed, and Roman was heard making his way downstairs while singing God Help The Outcasts. He stopped short at the scene in the living room. 

Virgil, Patton, and Logan stopped short too, staring at the ruffled dress he was sporting. 

“Oh, hello! Deceit, Re, lovely to see you! I was just about to come looking, actually. Will this do for a costume tomorrow?” He beamed at the two sides on the floor. 

“Don’t care, as long as I still get to play the goat!” Remus grinned up at him, his hand finding its way to Deceit’s and tangling their fingers together.

That small movement alerted Virgil, who stomped up to Roman, gesturing back at the pair on the floor. “Did you know about this? That they were together?”

“Oh, yes.” Roman’s eyes widened and his smile dropped. “I’m not a homewrecker, though! It’s just that… I hate having a construct play a main character, and Remus refuses to play anyone that has a love interest, so the only options are Deceit and I!” He smiled again. “Every role has been rewritten completely platonic, if that bothers you. I am the romantic side, you know, and it would be remiss of me to attempt to get between such a lovely couple!”

Remus snorted at the word ‘lovely’. “Can we go? I’ve got unfinished business.”

Deceit rolled his eyes and sunk the two of them out, winking at Patton as they went.

~

“What was that about?” Roman looked around at the other three sides, and at the mess of papers on the table. “And what is this?” 

He began to head towards the table, but Logan snapped his fingers and the papers vanished. Roman noticed that none of them were looking at him. “Well?”

“Uh, kiddo, we… We thought… Uh.”

“We seemed to be under the mistaken impression that you and Deceit were having an illicit and or secret relationship.”

Roman laughed. “No, no, Dee’s not the one I’m,” he cut himself off. “Iiiiii’m going to go back upstairs. Perchance this costume was an overkill. Have a lovely evening, nice talking to you!” 

He began to turn back up the staircase, but Virgil caught his arm. “Not the one you’re _what_?”

Roman didn’t say anything.

“Please, kiddo? We- we’re interested in you, the three of us, and it would be nice to know if…”

“Do not give me false hope, I beg of you.” Roman’s words were just barely loud enough to be heard. He didn’t turn back to face the other three, instead standing stock still where he was. “It  
is improbable, nay, impossible for you to love me.”

A chair scraped behind him, but Roman didn’t move. 

“Falsehood. It is hardly impossible at all, for us to have fallen for your charms. You are, after all, a prince.”

Roman turned then, at Logan’s calm reassurance, to see all three of them looking at him like he hung the moon. 

“I- I’m interested in you. All three of you.”

Their smiles in response made Roman feel like he fit in, like there had been a place for him all along.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> I set up a Discord server! <https://discord.gg/gtWgvQ4>  
Join me to talk about my writing and stuff!
> 
> Find more on tumblr @we-are-fam-ily


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